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Tag: Windows 7

So let’s say you have a Microsoft Access Database file, which you need to have 5 employees working on, at the same time. A great way to achieve it, is by creating a network drive, or in my case – shared folder.

In our office, we use Microsoft Access to manage our PO (purchase orders) system. We have 5 employees putting data in. The file itself is located on a “server” which is basically a local machine with Windows 7 premium installed. It has a shared folder, and they all work on this Microsoft Access Database (using Access “shared” open mode).

For 4 of the 5 employees everything goes pretty smoothly. One employee encountered a problem, where while trying to open the file – while others were using it – he got the following error:

“Open File – Security Warning: We can’t verify who created this file. Are you sure you want to open this file?”

We Cant Verify Who Created This File – Security Warning

The Solution

The problem here, is that the user is trying to open a file which is not located on the local drive. Windows thinks that the file is not safe (an intranet location) and tries to block it.

In order to resolve it, all we need to do is add the file’s location to the “trusted area”/ “safe zone”. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Open Control Panel, and go to “Internet Options”.

2. Click on the “Security” tab.

3. Click on “Local Intranet”.

4. Click on “Sites”.

5. Click on “Advanced”.

6. Click on “Add”.

7. Type in the shared folder address where the file is, for example \\home-pc\users\admin\documents\.

8. Click “Add”.

9. Click “Close” and then “OK”.

10. Try to open the file again, and you will be rid of the security warning.

Recently I migrated our company to Office 365. It was a big change, since we used to use Office 2003 that was connected to Exchange Server 2003 Onsite. One of the biggest changes about Outlook 2013, is that when the Calendar reminder window “pops up”, it usually stays “hidden” behind many other windows. It does play a sound and the window “blinks” yellow in the task bar, but if you’re concentrating on something else, it’s easy to dismiss it, and you could find yourself running late to a meeting.

The Problem

Microsoft has designed it to work that way, so that if you’re in the middle of something and don’t see the pop up window, you won’t press “Enter” by mistake, confirm the reminders and make the window disappear. Hence, when Outlook 2013 calendar reminder window pops up, it becomes hidden since there are other open windows covering it.

The Solution

One simple solution is to set a different – more noticeable – sound to the reminder window. You can do that by opening Outlook -> File -> Options -> Choose “Advanced” on the left side -> Click “Browse” and choose a different sound under the “Play Reminder Sound” field.

Of course – this simple solution won’t help you set Outlook reminders to stay on top.

The real solution here is a VBA based code (Don’t freak out, it’s pretty simple and easy to create) that pops up a customizeable message box that stays on top of every other window, and you can’t ignore it. The only con I find for this solution, is that this message box comes before the reminder window, and in order to view the reminder window, you need to click “ok” on the message box.

This guide is related to Windows 7 and Office 2013 / Office 365, althoug h I assume it will work in Windows 8 as well. So here we go:

1. First – we need to create a Digital Certificate:

How To Find And Create Digital Certificate In Office 2013:

I read on many websites that you need to click “Start” and type “Certificate” and then choose “Digital Certificate for VBA Projects”, but it will not work in Office 2013 / Windows 7.

In order to Create a Digital Certificate, we need to run the file “SELFCERT.EXE”. Here is the file location: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15”.

3. You’ll get a message says “Succesfully created a new certificate for outlookreminder”. Click “OK”.

4. Go to Outlook, and press ALT + F11 to open the VBA Editor.

5. On the left side, you’ll see “Project 1”. Double click, it will expand and you’ll see “Microsoft Outlook Objects”. Double Click it, it will expand and you’ll see “ThisOutlookSession”. Double click it.

6. On the window on the right side, copy and paste the following code [You can always change the text ‘This is a friendly reminder…’ and the title “Attention!”]:

9. In order to run the macro, we need to “sign” it. To do that, go to Tools -> Digital Signature -> Click “Choose” and select the certificate name we’ve created before [I named it “outlookreminder”, remember?].

10. Click “OK”, save again and close the window.

11. Now – since this is a macro, we need to allow it in Outlook. I’ve tried to allow this macro specifically with no success. I had no choice but allowing all macros. It’s not risky in my opinion, but do it at your own risk.

Having a Solid State Drive (SSD) is a great idea. SSD contains no actual “disk” of any kind, nor motors to “drive” the disks. It is a data storage device using integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently (Wikipedia)

As a matter of fact, imagine your regular hard drive, but on steroids. SSD drives are very fast and reliable, but there are two major problems with them nowadays: Price and Size.

SSD drives are pretty expensive in comparison to regular hard drives, and if that’s not enough, they are pretty small. A decent GB120 SSD costs USD99.99, while 1TB regular drive costs less than USD65.

So when you have a SSD in your laptop, you gotta keep it tight with the space consumption. It’s very easy to run out of space with SSD. My SSD became almost full this week, so I had to clean it up a little bit. The best way to start cleaning up your hard drive, is by identifying fat folders, and start digging in.

How to get folder size in windows

Back then, in Windows XP era, we were able to add the “folder size” column to the explorer window. For some reason, Microsoft decided to cancel this option with windows Vista, Windows 7 and 8. God knows why. I find this feature very important especially when you want to clean your hard drive, and you wanna know which are the biggest folders.

So I found a small program called “Folder Size“. As simple as that. Folder Size shows sizes of folders seen in Explorer windows.

The problem

We all are. Sometimes we try to copy a file which is locked by Windows (system file), a dump file or by a piece of software.

No matter what you try, you’re unable to delete or copy the file because it is locked, and Windows displays the above message. Pretty annoying, isn’t it?

Well – there’s a simple way to copy the file – kill the process that locked the file. But what if you don’t know which process / software locked the file, or you don’t really want to kill the entire process / close the program?

The solution – ShadowCopy

Well, I just came across a better (but still simple) solution using a 3rd party software called “ShadowCopy“ to copy locked files in Windows 7.

As the good developers say:

“Copy all your files – even if they are locked by Windows: ShadowCopy is a simple program that copies all files from one place to another. Other than usual file managers, such as Windows Explorer, it copies all files including locked and open files. This is made possible by using Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Services (VSS).”

If you ever needed to search within files in Windows 7 – AstroGrep is the perfect solution for you. In this post you’ll learn how to search within files in windows 7.

AstroGrep is a Microsoft Windows GUI File Searching (grep) utility. Its features include regular expressions, versatile printing options, stores most recent used paths and has a “context” feature which is very nice for looking at source code.

Main features of AstroGrep and How to search within files in windows 7:

Regular expressions

Concurrent multiple file types

Recursive directory searching

A “context” feature that selects the lines above and below your search expression